Founders Brewing's
Frangelic Mountain Brown will be the next release in Founders 750mL Backstage
Series, with availability beginning in July. Part of what makes Founders
Backstage Series so much fun is the period of speculation before the next
release is announced. But the purpose of the series is to bring some of our most
sought-after beers, which have been available primarily in the taproom and at a
few select events, to a much larger audience. Frangelic Mountain Brown will be
the fourth release in the series, joining Blushing Monk and Canadian Breakfast
Stout from 2011 and Curmudgeon’s Better Half, which was released in February of
this year.

Frangelic Mountain Brown is the quintessential taproom “one-off” beer: Founders’
brewers created the Mountain Brown series for their taproom in Grand Rapids in
2007. Frangelic Mountain Brown is the 16th iteration in the series of popular
brown ales—and it likely won’t be the last. The singular characteristic of this
beer comes from the use of hazelnut coffees in the brewing process. The beer has
distinct aromatics with sweet and nutty flavors beautifully balanced. Founders
is known for its beers made with coffee (i.e., the Breakfast Stout series), but
this is both the brewery’s first brown ale and its first beer brewed with
hazelnut coffees to be bottled. It clocks in at 9% ABV.

“The goal of the Backstage Series is to allow those beer enthusiasts who don’t
have the ability to make it to our taproom an opportunity to experience some of
the beers that, historically, have been limited to our taproom and a handful of
high exposure events,” Engbers said. “Although these beers are not brewed in
large volume, it is our intention to distribute them to all of our markets.”

While there will not be an official release party for Frangelic Mountain Brown
at the brewery’s taproom in Grand Rapids, the beer will be available on draft in
the taproom beginning Monday, July 2. The focus of bottle sales will be in
Founders’ distribution footprint.

The next beer to be released in the series later this year will be a celebration
of the brewery’s fifteenth anniversary, though the beer’s style is yet-to-be
revealed. The release party for this beer in November will be Founders’ first to
require advance tickets. The KBS release party in spring of 2013 is expected to
be an even larger festival-type event–be on the lookout for more detail to come.

History of Founders Brewing CompanyMike Stevens and Dave Engbers both had steady jobs when they
decided to chase their dreams and open a brewery–which meant writing a business
plan, quitting their jobs, and taking out giant loans. They figured if you’re
going to live life, you ought to live it hard, without regrets.

After some initial challenges, due to making well balanced but
unremarkable beers, we were on the verge of bankruptcy. It was at this point
that the original Founders team decided to brew the kind of beer that got them
excited about brewing in the first place: complex, in-your-face ales, with huge
aromatics, bigger body, and tons of flavor.

The Founders Family, a group of passionate beer enthusiasts, has
grown around this simple philosophy: “We don’t brew beer for the masses.
Instead, our beers are crafted for a chosen few, a small cadre of renegades and
rebels who enjoy a beer that pushes the limits of what is commonly accepted as
taste. In short, we make beer for people like us.”

We at Founders Brewing Company have been lucky to evolve into one
of the highest recognized breweries in the United States. Since 2011,
Ratebeer.com has ranked us as the 2nd best brewery in the world (we were 4th
best in 2010), and we have several beers listed in the top one hundred beers of
the world on Beeradvocate.com. We were the winner of four medals at the 2010
World Beer Cup, and the winner of two medals at the 2010 Great American Beer
Festival.

We are proud to be doing what we are doing, and we give great thanks to our many
customers and credit to our staff for whom we continually work to reinvent and
provide world-class beers